[Bay Kid]

Originally Posted by John_W

The first Arby's opened in Ohio in 1964. I believe it was either 1965 or '66 that Arby's opened on US 19 in St. Petersburg, Florida, not far from my high school. The building looked just like the photo below. It was mostly glass and when you entered the man wearing the chef uniform and tall hat stood out. He was at a slicer that was prominent right behind the counter. He sliced the meat with precision and stacked it onto a scale making sure every sandwich had the right amount. The buns were tall with sesame seeds and the BBQ sauce was like nothing you've had before.

The sandwiches were 79 cents, which at time was a lot considering McDonalds had opened across the street 3 years earlier and hamburgers were just 15 cents. My dad and I would go on a Saturday about once a month for a special meal at Arby's. If I had some extra money, we would sneak out of St. Pete High at lunch time an grab and Arby's sandwich.

About 1980 those original buildings started to disappear and replaced with square looking modern buildings. I ate at Arbys maybe once a month, it was nothing special by then, just a regular fast food with a little bit of variety. Sometime in the 80's I noticed the roasts started to appear to be processed, they were still good as long as you had plenty of Arby's sauce. About four years ago I ate at the Arbys on 466 in front of Walmart, the meat appeared darker in spots like it had been scorched and was hard. I threw the sandwich away and have never been back.



This idea has been tried and failed. In 1969 when I was in my second year at JC I wanted a part-time job, so I answered an ad and was hired at a brand new restaurant called "Wagon Ho". If you've been to St. Petersburg and went to St. Pete Beach via Pasadena Ave. it was on the left side just before you crossed any bridges.

This was a new franchise that was trying to incorporate both Arby's style roast beef and Burger King Flame Broiled Burgers. We had the slicers and the conveyor belt burger machine and we also had great fries. They built five of these locations. The buildings were very unique, it was like a giant western wagon with a huge canvas sail and a 15' high cowboy on the front. We all wore jeans, a white cowboy hat and cowboy shirt and greeted the customer by saying, "Howdy Partner, May I Take Your Order".

I thought Wagon Ho was going to catch on and do great. That summer of '69 I went away and worked on the boardwalk in Ocean City, Maryland at my cousin's sub shop. When I returned and stopped at Wagon Ho to get my old job back. The owners had moved on and turned the franchise back to the company. Business was slow and only a handful of employees were still there. I worked for a couple of months until they closed the doors.



Wagon Ho! - Bhamwiki

Love the pictures! Looks like my VW parked out front.